There are numerous semiconductor process steps involved in the development of modem day integrated circuits (ICs). From the initial fabrication of silicon substrates to final packaging and testing, integrated circuit manufacturing involves many fabrication steps, including photolithography, doping, etching and thin film deposition. For many of these processes, temperature is a key factor for obtaining desired film properties and characteristics. Characteristics of thin film metals and dielectrics affect electronic properties such as resistive and capacitive values, thus directly affecting IC performance characteristics such as device speed and power consumption.
In most semiconductor processes, heating by radiation is the preferred mode for heating because of its rapid heating capability compared to heating by conduction and convection. In a system where single wafers, or wafer batches are being processed, wafer throughput would be directly affected by the rate at which each wafer or each batch of wafers are heated and subsequently cooled. In such systems where heating by radiation is employed, a rapid cooling method should compensate to otherwise not compromise the high wafer throughput achieved by the rapid heating by radiation process.